Business Ombudsman suggests Putin pardon corrupt businessmen

The business ombudsman and chairman of the Party of Growth, Boris Titov, has prepared for President Vladimir Putin a plan to bring back businessmen from London – who are hiding there from the Russian justice system.

Mr. Titov said that during a recent trip to London he participated in the Russian-English business forum and communicated with Russian businessmen who are “wanted”.

“They are normal guys, but they are wanted through Interpol, because they are being prosecuted in Russia,” said Titov.

He noted that mostly these businessmen have far-fetched violations, but they decided to leave the country in order not to be detained.

He specified that he wants to begin a dialogue with the authorities about the businessmen who have fled abroad. First his team will analyze the list, after which the appeals to the president will follow.

At the same time, the Ombudsman did not name the names of those for whom he will intercede.

Most known businessmen who ‘disappear’ to Great Britain have criminal cases against them in Russia. These include: former Euroset owner Evgeny Chichvarkin, former head of the Bank of Moscow Andrei Borodin, former president of the Cosmos NGO Andrey Chernyakov, founder of Mezhprombank Sergey Pugachev, CEO of VimpelCom Mikhail Slobodin, former owner of Inkreditbank and STB Bank Herman Gorbuntsov.

Titov agrees that some of these entrepreneurs could indeed have violated the law and it will be necessary to find a solution to how to pay back the damage they caused to the country.

“But many of them, we very much doubt that they really violated laws, they are not criminals” – Titov said.

Inessa S is an Editor, Journalist and Translator at FRN. She was educated in the field of Political Science and has previous marketing and communications strategy experience for enterprises and corporations. She runs a popular YouTube channel for translations of key Russian Foreign Policy figures and appears regularly on other alternative media channels. If you like her work, you can support her Patreon here.